Do you use Onedrive?

[Muse]

It was automatically set up by my Microsoft accounts. I say accounts because I unfortunately have two of them. One was automatically (it seems) involved with their ...live.com system, the other's email address is the one I use regularly.

I tried joining those accounts, unsuccessfully (yeah, called MS). I managed to add my regular email address to the ...live.com account, but that account still exists, which seems ridiculous and problematical.

Well, I got messaging that my Onedrive backup is almost full. It shows a large bunch of large files, WAVs and MP3s, mostly.

Thing is, I back up anything I care about to my NAS.

I suppose it might_be_nice to have access from my cell phone, so I don't have to manually copy stuff to it, but I have never used Onedrive to access any of my data.

Do you use Onedrive? Pros/Cons?

 

[SamQuint]

I use OneDrive at work.

In a work setting it has many advantages. We have it setup on all users to automatically back up their desktop and documents folder. This has eliminated the need for backing up data for users. Also when setting up a new computer for a user, we install the image, then OneDrive restores all their data files. No need to back up files and transfer them from a backup.

When you save files directly to OneDrive it automatically saves files. It also does versioning so you can restore an older version of a file if you made a mistake.

You can share files to anyone in the organization. They get a link to just the file or folder you give them permission to. This is really helpful with large video files that cannot be emailed or giving access to a large number of files.

Users can collaborate on shared files with others.

You have access to your files using the OneDrive app on your phone and tablet.

The only con really is sometimes you have some quirky sync issues. If there is an issue you can resolve and choose the most current file. Sometimes there is a lag from when the file uploads to your OneDrive to when you will have access on your phone or tablet. When it is syncing to OneDrive the file cannot be moved, or deleted until the operation is finished.

You also need to understand how to change the settings. That way you can specify which folders to backup and which to avoid. You will want to have local copies of all your files so you can work offline as well.

Another thing to watch out for if you work in a networked environment, if you log onto someone else's computer and OneDrive auto starts it will see your credentials, log you into OneDrive and start copying your files down to that computer. You have to jump into the settings quick to tell it not to sync that computer and then delete the files it managed to copy.

 

[deadlyapp]

As the above poster mentioned, I only use onedrive for work generally. Our enterprise account allows something like 1TB per user so I can back up my entire computer if I see fit (which is nice, considering they don't allow external thumb drives or hard drives). It also allows sharing to anyone and gets around email attachment limits and I trust it a lot more than those random web based "big file" services.

 

[dullard]

SamQuint covered it well. It is quite nice to just jump from computer to computer at work and from work to home and the files are just there at the state you last saw it (or you can go back to any other version if you need to). I suppose that I could use it from computer to computer at home, but I've never had that need.

I really wish they had smart syncing though. When I switch from my desktop at work to a laptop in a conference room, wouldn't it be great if it started syncing the files that I used most recently? That way, the data that I was working on can be presented immediately. Sometimes, it takes quite a while (as in 10s of minutes which is a long time if you only have a minute until the meeting starts) as it syncs a bunch of old stuff first.

 

[SKORPI0]

Yes, I've been using MS OneDrive since it came out and currently on the 100GB plan (19GB used). Mostly photos, important documents/files and backed up to a flash drive/HDD.
Very convenient to have access from anywhere. Photos are automatically uploaded.

I also have Google Drive/Photos and lately Amazon Photos.

 

[pete6032]

Nope. Just Google Drive and Dropbox.

 

[Captante]

As the above poster mentioned, I only use onedrive for work generally. Our enterprise account allows something like 1TB per user so I can back up my entire computer if I see fit (which is nice, considering they don't allow external thumb drives or hard drives). It also allows sharing to anyone and gets around email attachment limits and I trust it a lot more than those random web based "big file" services.

IT department "security" cracks me up ... no thumb-drives allowed BUT do feel free to copy your entire work PC to external storage. Real secure lol... the type of media you use to swipe data hardly matters if you choose to swipe it.

Having said that I would be interested if One-drive really works well for file-history.... as of now I use Google drive for manual off-premise backups.

 

[KB]

IT department "security" cracks me up ... no thumb-drives allowed BUT do feel free to copy your entire work PC to external storage. Real secure lol... the type of media you use to swipe data hardly matters if you choose to swipe it.

Having said that I would be interested if One-drive really works well for file-history.... as of now I use Google drive for manual off-premise backups.

Part of ITs reasoning, is that people love to plug in thumbdrives that they find. Hackers can use this behavorism to their advantage, by dropping malware laden thumbdrives in a parking lot and having users pick them up and plug them in.

Also users can lose thumbdrives and thus lose data. IT may have better control over one-drive than lots of thumbdrives.

It was automatically set up by my Microsoft accounts. I say accounts because I unfortunately have two of them. One was automatically (it seems) involved with their ...live.com system, the other's email address is the one I use regularly.

I tried joining those accounts, unsuccessfully (yeah, called MS). I managed to add my regular email address to the ...live.com account, but that account still exists, which seems ridiculous and problematical.

Well, I got messaging that my Onedrive backup is almost full. It shows a large bunch of large files, WAVs and MP3s, mostly.

Thing is, I back up anything I care about to my NAS.

I suppose it might_be_nice to have access from my cell phone, so I don't have to manually copy stuff to it, but I have never used Onedrive to access any of my data.

Do you use Onedrive? Pros/Cons?

I use One-drive for personal backups Have a bunch of pictures in there. I like that it copies the files everywhere I go. I use several PCs and have access to the pictures on each.

 

[ultimatebob]

Microsoft really tries to cram OneDrive down your throat for new Windows 10 installations. They basically make you try to feel like a bad person for not backing up your stuff if you uninstall it

 

[quikah]

I use onedrive, but I have had it for a very long time (right after they renamed it from skydrive), so I was able to get 30GB free. The current 5GB free is less useful. Mostly use it to backup photos.

I also use it for work, this is very handy as it integrates seemlessly with Office, so I can open my work pretty much anywhere without thinking about where I saved it to.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I don't use any cloud file storage service, I don't like the idea of my files being out of my control. I sometimes toy with using it for backups though, but I'm not really sure how I would automate that as they don't tend to have simple rsync or ftp access but use proprietary software.

 

[BoomerD]

Nope. I have it disabled on my pc.

 

[BudAshes]

I use it for business, but use google for personal because their photo organization and tools are much nicer.

 

[LikeLinus]

I use it daily for work. I also use it at home for my family Office 365 plan. 5 users each with 1TB of storage. Never had an issue with it and it's very handy to share files.

 

[Amol S.]

Yes I personally use OneDrive.

 

[dullard]

Having said that I would be interested if One-drive really works well for file-history.... as of now I use Google drive for manual off-premise backups.

It has worked when I needed it. That isn't often, but it is there. I have an Excel file that I have updated almost every work day for the last year. I have 338 versions that I can pull up at any time that I want to. It is all automated, the file just needs to be in a folder that OneDrive backs up.

 

[WelshBloke]

Question - So. OneDrive. How do i nuke it?

I can uninstall onedrive, I can stop syncing onedrive, I can force delete onedrive folders using CMD. But onedrive keeps insisting on saving documents to ...WelshBloke/ onedrive/documents rather than WelshBloke/documents. If I try to redirect the documents folder I get some guff about access...

forums.anandtech.com

So no. Even though I've got a 1TB limit.

 

[Muse]

I use onedrive, but I have had it for a very long time (right after they renamed it from skydrive), so I was able to get 30GB free. The current 5GB free is less useful. Mostly use it to backup photos.

I also use it for work, this is very handy as it integrates seemlessly with Office, so I can open my work pretty much anywhere without thinking about where I saved it to.

5GB wouldn't scratch the surface of my data. I have a NAS at home with mirrored 3TB HDs that are around 65% full. I back up that data to 3TB external HDs once in a while and store them at two different pretty secure locations (a safe deposit box and a locker at my volunteer gig). I figure that even in the event of a major earthquake hereabouts my odds are pretty good I won't lose my data. I never figure that nobody can see my data, however unlikely that may be. So I either encrypt sensitive stuff (my own algorithm) or use hints that only I comprehend.

I don't use it on my personal computer, but I use it on my work laptop.

Pros:
-It's a good way of backing up my files, especially when the swapped my laptop

Cons:
-Had to fiddle with the settings to get it to keep local copies of everything; I didn't want to have to wait to download something every time I needed a file

That's one reason I don't use it. Maybe if I kept local copies it wouldn't be much of an issue. I routinely access and alter data that I want to be available on several of my PCs. A NAS seems to be a reasonable means of doing that. I've had issues with it at times. Usually it's snappy and pretty much fine but once in a while the NAS seems to get wonky and I have to kind of flush its cache... which Synology makes not so easy to do, unfortunately. Takes a couple of minutes, on average. I have to bring up its web interface (which sometimes takes some doing if for some reason a machine can't find the NAS), then poke through icons, menus, scroll, click, Apply, OK. I asked one of their support staff if there's a back door and he said "no."

 

[Brainonska511]

I don't use it on my personal computer, but I use it on my work laptop.

Pros:
-It's a good way of backing up my files, especially when the swapped my laptop

Cons:
-Had to fiddle with the settings to get it to keep local copies of everything; I didn't want to have to wait to download something every time I needed a file
-Settings again: had to uncheck the weird autosaving/live updating that it allows for Office docs because it was obnoxious
-A lot of data to move when I first turned it on
-Because of the local path structure for OneDrive, some of my folder paths are getting too long for Windows

 

[PowerEngineer]

FWIW, I use OneDrive and the whole Teams/Azure/Office 365 suite for consulting work. The main reason is to satisfy cybersecurity standards set by my largest customer. I also like the idea that my synced OneDrive folders are effectively backed up (one copy in the Microsoft cloud and another on my desktop's local encrypted hard drive); I do not remember this taking much fiddling. I also like the fact that I can access the cloud copies from my laptop without having them actually stored locally. It did take me a while to find how to turn the autosave default off. I haven't used my personal OneDrive yet.

 

[sandorski]

I intentionally used it a couple times, just for File transfer. It Defaults a few Files onto it, but 99.9% of the time I could live without it and wouldn't even notice.

 

[Muse]

I was vaguely aware that it was there, have never "used" Onedrive, in the sense of utilizing it. Computerwise, I was brought up in the DOS world when Windows was just a baby (3.1). AFAIK, "the cloud" did not exist in the early 1990's. I could function in DOS just fine, if I wanted, and did some.

A message popped up a few days ago saying I'm close to maximum storage for my Onedrive account and I'm encouraged to do something about that. It showed a couple dozen big files, e.g. 800MB WAV files that I store on my NAS but were created on one of my laptops. Windows has chosen to save them in a .../onedrive/... folder on the machine with which I created the files (using Audacity). I went with the flow, know where the folder is where the files are saved, have a shortcut to it on my desktop. But really, I see no good reason to have Onedrive involved in all this. I suppose I can delete files, either locally or maybe out on my Onedrive folder(s) in Microsoft's cloud. From the look of this thread, managing this, configuring this, eliminating the entanglements and difficulties involved in this may not be as simple as one might think!

 

[nakedfrog]

I don't use it.
I only used Google Drive for a little while because it was easier than emailing pics from my phone or plugging it in, but then they made it so it didn't work with AdBlock enabled, so I don't do that anymore either.

 

[WelshBloke]

I don't use it.
I only used Google Drive for a little while because it was easier than emailing pics from my phone or plugging it in, but then they made it so it didn't work with AdBlock enabled, so I don't do that anymore either.

Works using Brave on my S20fe. Or did you mean on a desktop?

 

[nakedfrog]

Works using Brave on my S20fe. Or did you mean on a desktop?

On a desktop. Just the downloading, I mean, I can still send it to Drive from my phone, but downloading it from my desktop browser isn't a simple click-to-download operation anymore (unless I disable AdBlock). I haven't put, well, any effort into fixing it because I don't care that much, now I just go back to either emailing myself the photo or plugging the phone in.